Kirklees on the move
"We should be striving to make our district somewhere where it's simple, sustainable, and safe for everyone to get around."
Residents voice
We want to get the district moving in a more sustainable way. Connecting communities across Kirklees and giving residents equal access to opportunities through affordable, reliable, and sustainable travel choices.
The need to move people and goods are essential to our everyday lives - enabling people to get to work, socialise and access services. Kirklees is a varied district - comprising of key commuter hubs such as Dewsbury and Huddersfield with well-connected regional train stations, coupled with rural communities that have more limited public transport options.
The transport sector is a significant polluter. Emissions from petrol and diesel vehicles are major issues when it comes to climate change and are the primary source of poor air quality in Kirklees. A government report in 2022, Air pollution: applying All Our Health, shows the devastating impact poor air quality is having on public health, contributing up to 36,000 premature deaths a year and costing the NHS and social care system an estimated £1.6 billion between 2017 and 2025.
The cost of running a car is unaffordable for some of our residents, with the 2021 census showing 22.7% of Kirklees households do not have access to a car or van. These individuals, primarily on low incomes, need to walk, wheel, cycle or use public transport.
The 2021 Census also shows that driving a car or van is the district's leading choice for commuting to work, used by 53.1% of residents, with 20.6% choosing a more sustainable option such as walking, wheeling, cycling or public transport.
We want active and sustainable travel options to be the obvious and easy choice. Active travel not only improves people's health and wellbeing, but a recent report by Sustrans: Urgent call to the UK Government to protect active travel as it's worth £36.5 billion to UK economy , shows that it's worth £36.5 billion a year to the UK economy.
In everday life, this might look like:
- Easy and affordable ways to get to where we need to go with minimal impact on the environment.
- Walking, wheeling, and cycling becomes the most attractive choice for short journeys, with public transport made convenient, reliable, and affordable for longer ones.
- If we need to use a car, we are met with less congestion and a greener more affordable vehicle option. Businesses have green fleets and appropriate charging is available for all electric vehicles.
What we have done
The transport sector and people's behaviours are changing. From 2021 to 2022, we saw an 8% increase in commuters choosing a more sustainable mode of transport over a private car or van.
We're investing in our infrastructure, encouraging behaviour change and making sustainable modes the easy and affordable choice. Dewsbury and Huddersfield will benefit from the multi-billion-pound TransPennine Route Upgrade investment, making the trains more frequent, faster, cleaner and reliable between Manchester, Leeds and York.
Walking and cycling within Kirklees has been improved, building on the success of the 7.3 mile Spen Valley Greenway . The Canal towpath between Slaithwaite and Milnsbridge is part of a £2.7 million investment to develop long-term accessibility on a continuous active travel route to Huddersfield Town Centre.
A £14 million revamp of Dewsbury Bus Station has been announced to make bus travel more attractive for residents, businesses, and commuters. Coupled with the 'Mayor's Fares' £2 cap on bus tickets, buses are becoming the affordable choice for people to move within Kirklees and to neighbouring places like Halifax, Wakefield, Bradford and Bingley. Read more about: Dewsbury Bus Station £14m revamp plans revealed
Local people and organisations are also making a huge difference. Cycle and scooter storage has been installed in local schools through the Mac's Bikes memorial fund to promote active travel by students and teachers, with the charity 'Streetbikes' striving to transform people's lives by providing cycling sessions for all abilities and repairing and re-homing unwanted or donated bikes back into the community.
Partner case studies
These partner case studies summarise vital action by partnership organisations for the 'Kirklees on the move' theme within Kirklees.
Ashbrow School, Birkby Junior School, Bramble Primary Academy, Golcar Junior and Infant Nursery School, Hartshead Junior and Infant School, Kirkheaton Primary School and Pentland Infant and Nursery School have all been presented with the Modeshift Stars Bronze standard for their commitment to sustainable travel.
When the pandemic hit, the schools continued their journey to improve the health and wellbeing for their children, encouraging parents, pupils, and staff to choose healthier and more climate friendly modes of transport to and from school.
EPIKS is a not-for-profit business that runs environmental projects across Kirklees.
They operate a fleet of e-bikes and offer taster sessions, training and led rides so that people can experience the value of e-bikes as a low carbon mode of travel. This involves taking e-bikes to places of work, community groups and events. Their 'Walk, Wheel, Ride' project also gives tailored support to people on all aspects of active travel.
What we want to achieve
60% of journeys within Kirklees to be sustainable journeys by 2030
Sustainable economic development (SED)
Environment for all (E4A)
100% fleet vehicles to be zero carbon by 2038
Resilient futures (RF)
All of Kirklees homes to be within 1km of a public transport connection point via safe pedestian route by 2038
Environment for all (E4A)
Sustainable Journeys Explained
Sustainable journeys covers modes of transport that have low to no impact on our environment when used, such as walking, cycling, public transport (buses and trains), alongside electric and low emission vehicles.
Each objective for 'Kirklees on the move' meets one or more of our 'Always On' priorities, Sustainable Economic Development (SED), Resilience Futures (RF), Environment for All (E4A).
Resilient futures
- Ensuring that our infrastructure (i.e. transport, highways, electric vehicle charging) can function and operate as normal in the face of future environmental challenges.
Environment for all and Resilient futures
- Continuing to reduce air pollutant emissions and subsequent improved air quality for all in Kirklees.
- Develop a reliable and resilient electric charging network for the district.
Environment for all
- Making our transport network and infrastructure2 accessible, affordable, and reliable for all in both urban and rural areas.
- Delivering the infrastructure that promotes and facilitates the safe use of active travel modes such as cycling and walking.
- Ensuring that our decision-making and policies actively support low-traffic neighbourhoods with a shift towards more active and public forms of transport.
Our introduction explains in more detail about our ambitions for this strategy, our always on priorities that each target is underpinned by, and provides more information about each individual target. Alternatively you can download our targets plan on a page graphic.
Summary data for Kirklees on the move
As of April 2022 in Kirklees, 99.1% of the residential dwellings across the district are within a 500m radius of public transport options - with 97.5% within 500m radius of routes with one or more bus per hour. We also have 2,129km of local access footways, ~44km of cycle lanes and ~52km of cycle routes, compared to a total of 2784km of road network (from motorway to local road).
For 2021, 38.9% were classified as 'zero carbon commuters', whereas for 2022 this has reduced to 29.8%. The cause of this reduction is due to the shift in working at home to working in the office as we recover further from the Covid-19 pandemic. If you exclude those individuals who work from home, the figures are significantly reduced, being 12.6% for 2021 and 20.6% for 2022 - showing an annual increase in sustainable transport modes by 8%.
2021 and 2022 Communter data for Kirklees
2021 Percentage of Kirklees population by commuter mode
- Work at home 26.3%
- Walk or run 7.1%
- Cycle 0.7%
- Bus or coach 3.7%
- Tube, metro or tram 0%
- Train 1.1%
- Motorcycle 0.3%
- Lift sharing 4.9%
- Drive alone 53.1%
- Taxi 1.8%
- Other 1%
2022 Percentage of Kirklees population by commuter mode
- Work at home - 9.2%
- Walk or run - 9.3%
- Cycle - 0.9%
- Bus or coach - 7.7%
- Tube, metro or tram - 0
- Train - 2.7%
- Motorcycle - 0.7%
- Lift sharing - 12.8%
- Drive alone - 55.39%
- Taxi - 0.9%
- Other 0.4%
As of October 2023, Kirklees Councils Electric Vehicle Fleet was 6.9% of total Council fleet.
